Tag: student trends

Transitions

‘Stuck in a Moment’ That They Can’t Get Out Of

The beginning of the school year — it’s one of our busiest times of the year.

So many students to meet, so many to reconnect with.

It’s a season in which life seems to move at an incredibly pace — nearly impossible to keep up with — or so it would seem.

Yet I was recently reminded that while this might be true for many of us, it isn’t true for everyone.

I’ve got a friend I’ve been visiting in the hospital the past few weeks. In my visits with him I’ve been reminded that time moves slower there. Much slower.

Student Culture, Trends & Issues

The #1 Thing on the College Freshman Mind

You may already know the top issues for your incoming freshman, but Dr. Tim Clydesdale has actually asked them. And in a workshop at this year’s National Collegiate Summit he shared seven common themes uncovered by his interviews with college-bound high school grads.

The #1 theme? Navigating relationships (making friends, finding a boy/girlfriend, getting along with roommates) and managing gratifications (particularly sex and partying, hence connecting gratifications to relationships).

Big Ideas & 'Best Of'

JOIN THE MIRACLE OF FEEDING THE MULTITUDES!

About 925,000 people go to bed hungry every night. Food insecurity plagues one in seven people on the planet. Around 25,000 people die every twenty-four hours from hunger or hunger related disease – more than those who succumb to malaria, TB and AIDS combined. Most of them are children – ten children die every minute.

What makes these statistics not only staggering but sinful are these two additional facts. There is enough food produced for each person on the planet to consume 4.3 pounds of food per day – that’s equivalent to seventeen quarter pounders. Even college students don’t eat that much food! And this: nearly 3 trillion pounds of food goes to waste every year.

Blogathons, Student Culture, Trends & Issues

Gluttony: It’s Not Just For Dinner

“Luke just finished a 10 lb burrito!” exclaimed his friend Colin rushing back from one of our local Mexican restaurants.

Gluttony: to gulp down or swallow; a serious failure in self-discipline. Always the words you want to start the semester with.

I work with two campuses that have the same problem in opposite directions. Campus A is a denominational school that requires chapel twice a week, often bonus chapels, has only one strong Christian organization that many attend, and service opportunities around the school.

Campus B is…

Student Culture, Trends & Issues

Strings Attached: Why the “hook-up culture” affects you

[This is an excerpt from an article I wrote for Threads Media on the impact of the hook-up culture.]

The hookup culture — this “no strings attached” paradigm toward casual sexual encounters — has become the new normal among many Christian collegiates in America. According to Relevant magazine, “Eighty percent of young, unmarried Christians have had sex. Two-thirds have been sexually active in the last year. Even though, according to a recent Gallup poll, 76 percent of evangelicals believe sex outside of marriage is morally wrong.”1

Yes, college students are having sex at alarmingly high rates, but truth be told, everyone is not doing it. One out of five young Christians have never had sex. One out of three haven’t had sex in the past year. If you haven’t had sex … you’re not alone. If you have, and you’re ready for a fresh start, now’s the time!

Academics & Vocation

INFOGRAPHIC: Students and Cheating

How big of an issue is cheating for your students?

Now let me rephrase that — how many of your students would say that cheating is a big deal?

In a culture that esteems success and achievement, while having little to say about character and integrity, some of the statistics featured in the infographic below may not be all that surprising.

And although this infographic focuses on the (relatively small) differences between cheating that occurs in online classes vs. on campus classrooms, without any regard for religious or moral underpinnings, we must believe that the students in our ministries fit all-to-comfortably within these statistics.

Student Culture, Trends & Issues

Practices for Campus Ministers Courtesy of the Rolling Stones — Part I

Friendship is a diminishing of distance between people. from Life p. 312

In my work with students, the two refrains I hear again and again go like this:

1) I want more friends

2) Community is hard

Who doesn’t want more friends? Certainly a major reason students attend school is to find connection, meet new people, and develop long lasting friendships.

But, community is hard. Most of the students I work with attend Boston University, which presents a unique environment. The school is embedded into Boston, stretching across two miles of the city, while running parallel to the Charles River.

Student Culture, Trends & Issues

[INFOGRAPHIC] Teens and Porn: 10 Stats You Need to Know

As I mentioned in my post yesterday, I’ve got a second book in the works…

The first book is geared towards Mentors — really anyone who might speak into the lives of college students (including, but not limited to: parents, pastors, professors, coaches, directors, et al). I hope it will serve as a guide for having important and timely conversations with students during their formative college years.

The second book will be geared towards college students and will examine some of the things that are literally “killing their souls.”

Big Ideas & 'Best Of'

Do You Have An APP For That?

For the past several years our ministries have been challenged to consider how to better reach — and connect with — an increasingly digital world.

From websites to blogs, to Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIN and Pinterest accounts, online registration and release forms, images and videos — even live streaming.

In many ways it’s felt necessary to obtain additional degrees in web management and social media strategy to co-inside with the ministry degrees many of us hold.

And things continue to grow and change in this area.